How the financial services industry fares in resilience and agility

Drivers of resilience and agility in the financial sector

Across industries, companies that rate themselves high on resilience and agility leverage many similar attributes that impact success, such as understanding and following the vision of their leadership and remaining open to change. 

Our statistical analysis reveals the 10 most critical attributes that predict business resilience and agility in the financial services sector:

1. We have voice-of-customer processes and tools so we can understand how customers feel about us and how their needs are changing.
2. Our workforce has sufficient autonomy to act on threats and opportunities without executive leadership getting involved.
3. Our compliance controls ensure our people follow policies.
4. Our risk tolerance is documented and shared, so employees know which risks they can take.
5. We use technology that makes our work more efficient and faster.
6. Our people understand and follow the vision provided by leadership.
7. We have voice-of-employee processes and tools so we can understand and adapt to our employees’ changing needs.
8. We have enough resources to try new things or technologies to improve the way we work.
9. We are very good at learning new capabilities or innovating our business when we face a threat or crisis.
10. Our people are open to change, which makes us able to move faster than competitors.

Compared with other major industries, these 10 attributes are well-leveraged in the financial sector — and this might explain in part why financial companies rate themselves higher on resilience and agility than other industries. Of these 10 success drivers, financial companies leverage three most capably (over 50% of respondents are actively leveraging these drivers):

• Effective compliance (3)
• Technology for work efficiency (5)
• Following the vision of leadership (6)

However, these same companies under-leverage the following five attributes:

• Voice-of-customer processes and tools (1)
• Employee autonomy (2)
• Documented risk tolerance (4)
• Voice-of-employee processes and tools (7)
• Room for experimentation (8)

Given that three of the underleveraged attributes are among the top five drivers of business resilience and agility, the analysis suggests that financial companies invested in sustainable growth and long-term success should prioritize their voice-of-customer processes and tools, employee autonomy and documented risk tolerance.

Barriers to business resilience and agility

Further analysis of the most impactful drivers of resilience and agility reveals four main barriers that companies must overcome to achieve meaningful success:

• People: Neglecting to see them as the challenge and solution
• Technology: Treating it as the solution, rather than the foundation
• Alignment: Failing to balance compliance with autonomy
• Goals: Companies bouncing back but not forward

When viewed through the lens of those five underleveraged drivers of success, all four barriers — people, technology, alignment and goals — stand in the way of companies achieving greater resilience and agility. For example, the number one driver of success, voice-of-customer processes and tools, can be effectively leveraged only when companies actively treat people as a key part of the solution.

Similarly, to benefit from the second-biggest driver of success — employee autonomy — financial companies must overcome the alignment barrier. Given that the financial services sector faces strict compliance measures, balancing compliance and autonomy for the greatest impact might be a heavier lift than in other industries.

Consider the impact on your company

Resilience and agility are crucial to the long-term success of financial institutions. When faced with market changes or internal setbacks, the organizations that bounce forward — while maintaining a strong vision and culture — are much more likely to overcome hurdles and thrive.

While only 21% of the financial services sector views their organization as weak or very weak in business resilience and agility, recent industry disruptions pose the question of whether some companies have overestimated their ability to surmount barriers to growth.

At the very least, uncertain times call for extra attention to the drivers that impact resilience and agility. Executives committed to steadfast growth should take stock of how their companies currently leverage the top 10 drivers of success — and invest additional resources in any areas that come up short. In times of crisis especially, financial institutions that empower employees to deliver on a clear vision and strategy are in an optimal position to overcome barriers to resilience and agility.